


Musakui Rescue

by Aviantei



Category: Kagerou Project
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Gen, Kagerou Day 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-11-24 13:23:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20908373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviantei/pseuds/Aviantei
Summary: [Drabble Collection] Sometimes, the most potent heroes are the ones who save us without meaning to.





	1. Side: Shintaro

**Author's Note:**

> This drabble collection was originally published on fanfiction.net between October 22, 2014 and August 12, 2017. I mostly wanted to explore the idea of how Shintaro and Ayano viewed each other, and then I ultimately expanded the pieces to other members of the cast.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

**Musakui Rescue**

By: Aviantei

Side: Shintaro

* * *

I started out as a loner. And that was just fine.

Given my attitude back then, it’s no wonder that I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t have to put effort into my school work. When it came to group activities, I did the work by myself. All I really accomplished was pushing other people away. I only cared about my computer, and back then I didn’t have the excuse of Ene living there to count it as my only friend.

To put it simply, I was a brat.

I didn’t really care. I could put up with my family, so they didn’t care either. I’m sure Mom would have liked it a bit more if I had brought a friend home, but I got perfect grades, so she probably assumed that was why I didn’t. And Momo… well, she had enough people fawning around her to have time to worry about my problems.

Hence, whenever Ayano came around, I was more than a brat. I was a jerk.

Other people would give up after one or two tries to be my friend. I was so accustomed to shutting people down that it was instinct by the time Ayano started trying. The difference was that she didn’t get discouraged. It was frustrating. After all, I was tired of people trying to be my friend just because I didn’t have any friends. I was perfectly okay with being alone. Why couldn’t anyone _see_ that?

Except, I guess I really didn’t want to be alone. And Ayano wasn’t trying to be my friend because she thought I needed one. I mean, she mentioned it, but it wasn’t her real reason. _She_ wanted to be friends with someone. She didn’t choose me for any other reason than we sat next to each other in class.

It took me a bit to realize that, though. And when I finally did, I was still a jerk for a bit, just to make sure. That didn’t last long, though. She genuinely wanted to be my friend, so I let her.

Everything kind of changed from there. Sure, it wasn’t by much, but I wasn’t as closed off. No one really approached me much anymore, but I don’t think I would have been as rude if they did. Of course, I don’t think I could have handled too much attention, but just a little but wouldn’t have been so bad.

The world suddenly seemed like it wasn’t so bad of a place to be in.

I have her to thank for that.


	2. Side: Ayano

**Musakui Rescue**

By: Aviantei

Side: Ayano

* * *

I never told anyone, but now I guess that it’s safe to admit that I was lonely.

I still feel guilty about it. Back in those days, I had everyone still. I had Tsubomi, Shuuya, Kousuke, Dad, and even Mom. I would come home from school every day and talk to them, play with them, and have a happy home life. They gave me all the company I should have ever wanted, and that should have been enough. Really, I was spoiled by their smiles, their laughter.

The problem was that they never really managed to be enough. They were wonderful parents, wonderful siblings, but that couldn’t really compare to what it was like to have a friend my own age, someone I could eat lunch with and hang out with after school.

I tried my best to be friendly, but my nerves could only carry me so far. It would take me days to work up the courage to talk to someone, and often times I would give up in the middle of talking to them, my requests for friendship coming out half-undone.

It’s not to say that I was friendless. I had my fair share of friends over the years, but none that really stuck around. It wasn’t their fault either. They usually had other friends, or, on the off chance they were alone like me, were far better at making friends than I was. They would try to get me to meet their friends, and I would freeze up.

How was I supposed to handle being around so many people the same age as me?

Shintaro was different. No, Shintaro was _wonderfully_ different. It didn’t matter that he gave me a hard time at first. I had promised myself at the beginning of that school year that I wasn’t going to give up, that I would make friends with the person that sat beside me, no matter what it took.

It was discouraging at first. Shintaro never let _anyone_ get close to him. The others in our class that had been around him for longer all said that he was a weirdo, that he was strange, that it was better not to try and make friends with him because there was no point. That didn’t matter. I had come to be just as much of an outcast, a clumsy, not-so-smart girl that didn’t know how to be friends with each other. I convinced myself that we were the same.

It didn’t matter that he was brash. It didn’t matter that I annoyed him. It didn’t matter that he got perfect grades without even trying. We were the same.

We had to be.

I was more than a bit desperate. But in the end, when Shintaro finally decided to just give in and be my friend, I was happy. He was pitying me, but I was happy. And with a little bit of time, persistence, and exam-made paper cranes, I was able to make him smile, and Shintaro was…

Maybe I’ll keep that part to myself. Even now, I’m not ready to say it. Regardless, he made me feel better about myself—the good and the bad—without even trying.

And I decided that I wanted to be the type of person that was worthy of being saved by him.


	3. Side: Marry

**Musakui Rescue**

By: Aviantei

Side: Marry

* * *

As much as I wanted to see the outside world, at the same time, I was afraid of it.

It was a conflicting sort of feeling that I ended up having. Mom had always told me to be wary of the outside world, that there were people that wanted to hurt me there. At first, I didn’t believe her. I was so in love with the world that I heard about in stories that I couldn’t imagine it as anything other than wonderful.

Of course, the day I did decide to go outside changed that…

That’s when I started to doubt my feelings. I knew the world was dangerous. I had experienced it first hand, all the pain that could come to me because of it. I was terrified of what would happen if I went outside again, so I locked myself up like Mom wanted me to. I spent years without even thinking about taking the chance of opening up a window.

That only lasted for so long, though. I didn’t want to be hurt, and I didn’t want to hurt people, but I still couldn’t resist the world in storybooks. I never did go outside again, but I wanted to. I wanted to go outside so badly that I couldn’t stand it. And somehow, Seto found that desire, finding me in the process.

He was only a kid back then, but I couldn’t believe how wonderful he was. Seto didn’t just find me, he showed me that people could be kind. He looked at me and smiled, gave me his sweater as a gift. He was all the proof I needed that people in the outside world could be kind.

He didn’t just visit once, either. He came back, like he didn’t want me to be alone. He said that he understood how I was feeling, that he didn’t want to be alone, either. So we kept meeting up with each other, and slowly the lonely feeling I had disappeared.

It took a bit more work for me to stop being afraid of the outside world, though. Seto was kind, but I also knew that there were people who weren’t. Seto encouraged me, but he never forced me to do anything. He wanted me to meet his family, so I agreed to leave the house with him.

Being outside with so many people was scary! I can’t get over that feeling, even after all the time I’ve been away from the house. But that first time, I was terrified. There were so many people that could have been kind, but they also could have wanted to hurt me. Seto had said that nobody would be able to know that I wasn’t human, but that could only do so much to make me feel better…

So he gave me his hand. He told me he’d take care of me, too, that he’d do whatever it took to protect me. It wasn’t anything big, but he stuck by my side whenever I needed it, and he still does that sort of thing. When it comes to backing me up, Seto’s saved me more times than I could count.

So that’s part of why I want to stay by him.

Someday, maybe, I’ll be able to pay back his kindness?


	4. Side: Mekakushi Dan

**Musakui Rescue**

By: Aviantei

Side: Mekakushi Dan

* * *

We were never in a good position to start with. Even coming from different places, we couldn’t fit in. Always—

_noticed_

_alone_

_hurt_

—and even after that time was over, we weren’t saved. Because by escaping what had come before, we had become monsters.

What we held in common were our eyes—

_concealed_

_stolen_

_deceiving_

—a color of red that no one else had, that anyone else would have considered unnatural, a red we tried to hide, even after it brought us together in that orphanage, where no one else would understand what had happened to make us different from everyone else.

When they adopted us, it was in a way to save us. Later, we learned that it was of our powers as well, but the love of wanting to protect someone is what brought us to our home. We weren’t separated, and we got to move on from a place where we wanted to hide from everyone around us.

But that wasn’t enough.

We still were different, still ashamed, still—

_monster_

_monster_

_monster_

—but.

But she didn’t see us that way. Ayano, Onee-chan—she loved us and worried about us. And while she wanted to see us smile, she didn’t know how much that one little remark saved all of us, how we went from monster to hero within one afternoon’s play session.

And that would have been enough, but she didn’t stop there. She stood by us. When she found out what happened, she went so far as to die because she thought it would protect us. At the end, because of everything she tried to do, she made it possible for all of us to come from that summer alive.

Not because she tried to save everyone. But because she loved us all and wanted the best for us, no matter what it took.

And she—

_Ayano_

_Ayano_

_Onee-chan_

—is the sister we all love.


	5. Side: Hibiya

**Musakui Rescue**

By: Aviantei

Side: Hibiya

* * *

More than anything, I wanted to save her.

I can admit, Hiyori wasn’t always the best person. She was brash and rude, and I almost got bullied by her. I always told myself it was okay because I liked her. Everyone liked her! She was cute and knew how to get what she wanted. I would have bet that even the bigger guys at school were afraid of crossing her.

She was cool.

Undeniably cool and strong.

That was the image I had of Hiyori.

That day—_that endless, repeating day_—I wouldn’t say it changed that image of her, but it made me realize something: Hiyori was strong, but there were some things even she couldn’t stand up to.

I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve watched Hiyori die do many times I could never forget it. But even though those images are burned in these eyes, talking about it won’t change anything. I would rather say Hiyori’s strength wasn’t enough that day and leave it at that.

I became obsessed with saving her. Once I realized what was going on, I knew I had to save her. I—I was just a nuisance and didn’t matter. But Hiyori couldn’t die. She _couldn’t_. And what better way could I prove my love for her than by sacrificing myself for her sake?

Of course, later I found out that she thought she was doing the same thing for me. But that didn’t change that, at the end of August fifteenth, I was the one that survived. I lived.

I failed Hiyori, but I lived.

Oba-san was—how do I put it? I thought she was an idiot. Let’s admit it, Oba-san was kind of a dunce. But she was genuine, in a way I wasn’t used to. She befriended me and Hiyori beforehand, and even though we were pretty much strangers to her—a fan and her tagalong—she was still worried about us.

When she thought we were in trouble, she worried.

When she heard that Hiyori was gone, she cried.

When she noticed that I was down, she did everything she could to cheer me up.

That did more for me than I was willing to admit. At the time, I denied that it had worked, acted like the confidence I gained came from my own strength. But I was still wobbling, and Oba-san was the one to hold me up so I could walk steady.

Even now, I don’t think she realizes how much she did for me by sharing her encouragement. That’s sort of because I haven’t told her still. But no matter how I thought I needed to be the hero, that I needed to be the one to save someone, Oba-san saved me.

Momo saved me.

And maybe one day, I’ll be strong enough to stand on my own and tell her that.


	6. Side: Momo

**Musakui Rescue**

By: Aviantei

Side: Momo

* * *

I’ve never been used to people doing things for me without wanting something.

Okay, I guess that’s not all true. Sorry about that. I have met people who do things entirely out of kindness and not from personal gain. My dad was like that—strong, cool. I was that kid who thought they would marry their dad when they got older. Not that it would happen, but that was how much I admired him.

It almost broke me when he died, but it didn’t.

It just gave me my power instead.

They’re a silly thing, my Captivating Eyes. Eyes that draw the attention of others to them. With them, even if I didn’t realize why, I had a presence no one could look away from. When I become an idol, I had only been thinking of how I could help my mom, how I could bring some money into the house when she couldn’t support us all on her own.

That brought complications. Sure, I attracted a lot of fans, which was critical to my success. Even a boring girl like me could be famous with a little bit of magic! But that meant attention no matter what, and people who would scramble to me, people who would do me favors not because it was the nice thing to do, but because I was an idol and they had something to gain from it—whether it be a favor or just the chance to brag “I got to help out Kisaragi Momo!”

What hassle.

What an awful, awful hassle.

If I had thought things through, I might not have accepted the offer to become an idol in the first place. Or maybe I would have, I just would have been prepared for the chaos that would happen. But I was a stupid, optimistic kid, which meant the attention of being an idol absolutely overwhelmed me.

I wanted to quit.

I wanted to run away.

I wanted my eyes to be normal.

They wanted my eyes because they were _abnormal_.

The initial impression the Mekakushi Dan gave me was, in a word, suspicious. Leader was awkward and Kano acted as distrustful as they come. But they were interested in me not because my eyes captivated them, but _because my eyes were like theirs._

They all did their part, but Leader did the most. In the practical sense because her ability was the perfect counter to mine. In the emotional sense because, not only did she lead the front to treat me as normal, she became my friend.

All while leading her group of misfits.

All while shouldering her own burdens.

On that summer day, Kido Tsubomi offered me her hand and a sense of kindness I hadn’t seen since my dad died trying to save me.

Man, our Leader is the coolest, right?!


	7. Side: Azami

**Musakui Rescue**

By: Aviantei

Side: Azami

[Kagerou Day 2017]

I built the Never-Ending World in a pathetic attempt to save my loved ones—to save myself from the loneliness I had endured before I met Tsukihiko. When that didn’t work, it became my prison instead.

So do forgive me if I didn’t consider it as a place that could save anyone.

My Never-Ending World—I believe you children referred to it as the Heat Haze—taken over by my own Snake of the Clearing Eyes became a place where those who died in pairs were drawn to, one to return the other to remain.

The first prisoner after myself was my own daughter. Many years had passed since I had left her and my husband behind.

Many years passed again before the next prisoners joined us. And by then they came so often that I couldn’t believe how many people had been trapped, even though I had set the others free by giving them my own power.

I felt guilt, for not only I had been overtaken, but so many others were caught between my selfish desires and the foolish wish of the Snake to keep his sentience and existence no matter what, even when it had been nothing but a fragment of power before.

I would have felt sympathy had it not gone to such awful lengths to preserve itself—had it not harmed my granddaughter.

Marry—you children were her friends, drawn together by the fate of encountering my Heat Haze. You children were the ones who gained power within the Never-Ending World and suffered though hardships because of it.

I pitied you, for becoming toys in a game took so long to overcome.

But you—you all thought that by releasing you I had saved you.

No matter the pain.

No matter the loss.

No matter the tragedy.

You children were grateful for the lives you had been given. Maybe not at first. Many of you cursed your powers, and I would think you correct for continuing to do so. But you bonded over your abilities, stood by each other’s’ sides and became a family very much like the one I had been trying to protect in the first place.

At the end of it all, the boy who had taken on the burden of bearing the Snake of the Clearing Eyes, of living with the knowledge his body and ability had caused so much trouble—at the end, that boy put together a memorial for the very Snake who had destroyed you all over and over all.

He built a memorial and remembered the pain of all times before.

He spoke to me, through the small crack that connected my Never-Ending World to his.

_Thank you for saving me._

_Thank you for saving Takane._

_Thank you for giving all of us a chance._

There was no way for me to respond to him, not when the connection between our worlds had dimmed so much. And I admit, I should have closed that gap a long time ago, but part of me wanted to stay in touch with the world you children had prevailed in continuing after being stuck in the same time for so long. If I could have responded, I would have told that boy he was wrong, because I had never meant to save any of you children.

Because with those words, you all had saved me instead.


End file.
